THE HONKEYMOON CAFE

A wine tasting to end all wine tastings. George Villander’s wife wondered whether the beach hut which a neighbour had mentioned had been destroyed by fire that afternoon, could have been theirs. There were many along the Brighton seafront so the chance was remote. When her husband had not returned from his afternoon stroll by evening she began to fear there might be a connection. Visiting the local police station she was presented with the twisted remains of a cigarette lighter which she was able to identify as being her husband’s by his initials having been engraved upon it. The investigating officer was very consoling and had much sympathy for Mrs. Villander’s loss, nevertheless he was insistent on apprising her of all the details as a measure of his and his staff’s thoroughness. The intensity of the fire had severely damaged several other huts and there was little that could be identified in what remained other than the engraved cigarette lighter which had been returned to he...

An antiques expert discovers something peculiar which raises questions about a death.  Was it an accident or was a ghost involved? More to the point, was it murder?  A retired inspector admits there’s no proof. In the end it’s not needed. You may recall I was telling you about Lucy Musgrave and her husband Mark that had not long been living in the Old Mill before Lucy, who had become a friend, was found at the bottom of the stairs with her neck broken. She had been confiding in me, and the rest of the village, that her husband was being haunted by the ghost his deceased wife, Diana, who begrudged his marrying again. The Old Mill had a reputation for being haunted so to some this was no surprise. Lucy had described how he was being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and how he had been led half asleep to the top of the stairs several times from where eventually the ghost of Diana had pushed him down. An ambulance took him to hospital but he was released the same day ...

Mark and Lucy move into the Old Mill which is haunted. The husband suspects his deceased ex-wife, Diana, is haunting him.  After being pushed down the stairs, a medium is called to conduct a seance, and it’s definitely Diana.  When Lucy is pushed down the stairs, was it an accident, or was it Diana? It was a given that the Old Mill in our village would have the remnants of its past inhabitants still in occupation. That they were never seen, never heard and no evidence of any paranormal activity was ever revealed was not enough to prove to the locals that they didn’t exist. So it was expected that when Mr. and Mrs. Musgrave moved in and embarked upon some alterations that the disturbance would have some predictable consequences.   ‘They’ll pay for it, one way another, mark my words,’ was what Paul Goggin kept saying and ultimately I suppose he was proved right. He ran the local shop, the hub of the village and the font of all rumour and gossip. When the work was completed ...

A child's toy rescued from the flames at last finds a loving home. There are many things that can inspire a story, in this one it was a child’s toy that would have been burn’t if it wasn’t for the rain. It was when my mother didn’t call me down for breakfast that I began to think something was wrong; something had changed. Even at an early age we become accustomed to routine and as much as we might say we find it tedious, it is also a comfort. A noise might wake us in the dead of night, but for sailors the monotonous drumming of an engine is what lets them stay literally, sound asleep. It will be when the engine stops that they will awake. I remember laying for a while wondering if normality would resume, but it didn’t. Outside my bedroom, I could hear unfamiliar sounds coming from downstairs. Cautiously I crept down the stairs until I could see into the living room where daddy sat with an arm round mummy who was crying. Daddy looked up and with an inclination of his head,...

Ever moved into a house, and can’t get rid of something that came with it?  Something that doesn’t want to leave? Things have feelings too. Gerald Hopkins had not long moved into our village when the landlord of the Drum pointed him out to me, ‘You know a bit about clocks,’ he said, pulling my pint, ‘have a word with that chap, Gerald is his name, he wants to get rid of one.’ He nodded in the direction of a disheveled looking chap of about fifty seated in the small dining area off of the main bar. By what was left on his plate he had attempted some of Dave’s excellent fish and chips and failed, giving me the impression he was not a well man.  Clocks either work with very little effort, mostly having been overwound, or they never work at all, or at least not reliably. With so many other ways to tell the precise time, clocks are more about decoration than a reliable time-piece. I approached Gerald and he looked up, ‘Dave says you want to sell a clock?’ ‘Dave?’ ‘T...

Why some villages prosper and some don’t has to be about the people and not about ‘prosperity’. Wealthy estates can be cold and unfriendly, villages that have lost their industry can still be proud of their sense of community. In a changing world the past is the foundation on which the future is built.   The landlord at our local is Dave. Dave Watts ex London Cabby and dealer for more than a few years in secondhand goods, particularly government surplus and militaria. Landlord in relation to public houses is an honorary title, as the ‘landlord’ is seldom the owner of the property. Many licensed premises used to be owned by a brewery who at least had some consideration for their staff and their customers. The rise of various pub companies has decimated particularly country pubs who were unable to maintain the leases demanded without becoming restaurants, and how many restaurants do we really need? Fortunately our local is part of the Blythe estate and was originally built along wit...